INTERVIEW 30
EVOLUTION,
not revolution
Being in the same industry for 30 years is remarkable; working in the same company – without having the vested interest of owning it – equates to unadulterated dedication. Although that’s perhaps not how Cezary Monko would describe it…
O
ur second interview with a true industry icon, who has coincidentally been a long-time friend and staunch supporter of OPI, is Cezary Monko, President of ACCO Brands EMEA (for the other interview with Steve Haworth, see page 48). Monko’s career, of course, started at Esselte, the originally Sweden-based manufacturer which has gone through bouts of M&A activity over the years and was bought by ACCO Brands in 2017. Monko recently spoke to Andy Braithwaite for an OPI Talk podcast (visit opi.net/podcast). This is an abridged version of the chat which charts the trials and tribulations of a vendor that went out on a progressive limb in a largely unexplored territory. In the process, it found a leader who has spent all of his career being just as progressive, with a pragmatic attitude and a global, yet very local, outlook.
OPI: You started out as a Sales Manager at Esselte in Poland, now you are President of ACCO Brands EMEA, responsible for approximately 2,500 people and €600 million
For a Western company with an international reach to invest in a Central European market [...] was innovative at the time OPI: So is this a rags to riches, obscurity to fame, kind of tale? CM: (laughs) Not quite. But it was a time of tremendous change in my home country. For a Western company with an international reach to invest in a Central European market – we weren’t even in the EU back then – with a full-blown subsidiary was innovative at the time. Not many companies did that; in fact, the only other player doing the same I recall was 3M. My remit in the early days was to explore the market’s opportunities – there were no big actual and imminent sales expectations. I was doing a lot of research and found there was plenty of demand in this geography which, incidentally, was thriving and developing very quickly.
September/October 2021
OPI: Almost 30 years in the same company – of sorts. How does that feel? Cezary Monko: It’s flown by. I, of course, never expected to last as long as I did when I joined Esselte almost 30 years ago, but it’s definitely been the best career I could ever have hoped for.
($709 million) of turnover. That’s quite a climb up the corporate ladder. CM: I guess it is. When I started, I was Sales Manager, but the title was bigger than the role. I wasn’t managing anything – I was just a one-man band with a car.
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